EduClips: Observers and Allies React to Firing of KIPP Co-founder Mike Feinberg Over Abuse Allegations; Education Officials Debate Arming Teachers, Handling Student Protests After Florida Shooting — and More Must-Reads From America’s 15 Biggest School Districts

EduClips is a roundup of the day’s top education headlines from America’s largest school districts, where more than 4 million students across eight states attend class every day. Read previous EduClips installments here. Get the day’s top school and policy news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the TopSheet Education Newsletter.

Top Story

CLIMATE CHANGE — Idaho has ended a years-long battle over whether the state would require its science teachers to teach about global warming when the State Senate education committee voted to adopt standards that included sections on human-caused climate change.

Idaho’s legislature had scrubbed all mentions of human-caused climate change from its teaching standards last year. The State Department of Education then put forth revised standards, but this month the House education committee voted to gut the supporting content, which was designed to help teachers assign coursework and included multiple mentions of climate change. On Thursday, the Senate committee approved the revised standards in full, including the supporting content, on a 6-to-3 vote that drew support from both parties. Because both chambers did not agree to reject the standards, they will go into effect. (Read at The New York Times)

National News

EQUITY — The Next Educational Equity Battleground: Little-Noticed ESSA Provision to Allow Parents to See Whether Districts Fund Schools Fairly (Read at The74Million.org)

FLORIDA SHOOTING — Police say more deputies waited outside school during Stoneman Douglas shooting (Read at the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)

FLINT CRISIS — Is Flint’s Water Crisis Leading to Lower Test Scores? (Read at Governing)

ARMING TEACHERS — For the Record: Not All Educators Oppose Arming Teachers, Staff (Read at Education Week)

STRIKE — West Virginia Teachers Go on Statewide Strike (Read at The Wall Street Journal)

ADVANCED PLACEMENT — ‘Official’ Pre-AP Aimed at Improving College Readiness for All Students (Read at Education Week)

District and State News

TEXAS — How KIPP’s observers and allies are reacting to co-founder Mike Feinberg’s firing (Read at Chalkbeat)

FLORIDA — Florida Gov. Rick Scott Seeks More School Resource Officers in Wake of Shooting (Read at Education Week)

TEXAS — How Texas is a model for Trump’s gun-toting teachers (Read at Politico)

CALIFORNIA — Push to arm teachers in California would face major hurdles (Read at EdSource)

NEW YORK — NYC mayor encourages school walkouts in wake of Florida shooting: ‘If I was a high school student today, I’d be walking out’ (Read at Chalkbeat)

VIRGINIA — More armed security, gun control to be weighed by Fairfax Co. School Board (Read at WTOP News)

FLORIDA — Students Return to Florida School Where 17 Were Killed (Read at U.S. News and World Report)

ILLINOIS — Illinois Spends More on Education, but Outcomes Lag (Read at Illinois Policy)

NEVADA — OPINION: The facts behind Nevada’s education spending (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

CALIFORNIA — State bill would let SAT replace standardized tests (Read at the San Francisco Chronicle)

NEW YORK — Ahead of school closure vote, New York City families protest and anxiously await new options (Read at Chalkbeat)

ILLINOIS — Charter school debate grows in South Loop (Read at the Columbia Chronicle)

Think Pieces

LEARNING OUTCOMES — The Misguided Drive to Measure ‘Learning Outcomes’ (Read at The New York Times)

COLLEGE DEBT — Race and Debt: Black Grads Default More Frequently Than White Dropouts (Read at The74Million.org)

HIGHER EDUCATION — New research offers hope to first-generation college grads (Read at The Hechinger Report)

VOUCHERS — Do vouchers help students get to college? Two new studies come to different answers (Read at Chalkbeat)

PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS — 4 Ways Philadelphia Can Keep Its Schools Moving in the Right Direction as District Prepares to Retake Local Control (Read at The74Million.org)

PERSONALIZED LEARNING — ‘My students are not expected to disappear into the cultural melting pot the way I was’ (Read at The Hechinger Report)

Quote of the Day

“To be honest, it’s kind of embarrassing that it’s been so controversial.” —Idaho State Senator Janie Ward-Engelking of Boise, a Democrat, on the legislature’s move to include human-caused climate change in its teaching standards. (Read at The New York Times)

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